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Supreme Court issues notice and lists plea related to delay in counselling of BDS Doctors for July 12.

A Division Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah, while recording submissions of the petitioner, adjourned the matter for Monday.

Appearance was made by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, for the petitioner.

In a brief hearing, Court expressed an inclination to the submission that counselling of MBBS and BDS students need not be considered together.

"They are saying that they are waiting for the MBBS results and then carry it forward," said Senior Counsel Vikas Singh.

The petitioners seek issuance of a Writ in the nature of mandamus, order or Direction of similar nature to the authorities to release the schedule for The NEET-MDS 2021 counselling on an immediate basis and in any event not later than three weeks.

The petitioners have stated before the Court that umpteen efforts were made by the Petitioners to get in touch with the Respondents in order to get an idea about the schedule of the counselling. However, there has been no update about the date of the commencement of the counselling. Therefore, because of this delay the Petitioners and similarly placed candidates are surrounded by a cloud of uncertainty and have been under immense mental pressure for the last six months.

The petition reads, 

“Impugned action of Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to Delay the counselling process and further provide no information about the prospective dates, is unfair, irrational and manifestly arbitrary and is in sheer violation of the fundamental right enshrined under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.”

The NEET-MDS 2021 was conducted on 16.12.2020. Thereafter, the results were also declared on 31.12.2020. However, after the declaration of the result there is no update regarding the counselling till 23.06.2021. Although the counselling for the NEET-MDS usually commences in March every year.

The Petitioners contended that any further delay in the announcement of the counselling dates will lead to wastage of entire year of the Petitioners and thousands of other candidates as Section 10.5 of the Information bulletin, as released by theMCC, states that results for NEET-MDS, 2021 will only be valid for the academic session 2021.

The Petitioners also pleaded before the Court to direct the MCCto conduct a separate counselling for the NEET-MDS 2021 and not wait for the commencement of NEET-MDS 2021 counselling until the counselling for NEET-PG commences. The contention being there is no reasonable nexus for the counselling of NEET-PG and NEET-MDS to be held together, when the former was postponed and decided not be conducted until 31.08.2021 with a one month notice to prepare thereafter.

NEET-MDS is the single eligibility cum entrance examination for admission to MDS Courses. This year, around 30,000 BDS (dental) graduates have appeared for the NEET-MDS 2021 conducted for admission over 6,500 seats in the country.